Commander of U.S. Southern Command Gen. John F. Kelly testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee during hearings in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2015 and the Future Years Defense Program at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., March 13, 2014. (DOD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Daniel Hinton)

Donald Trump Picks John Kelly, Retired General, to Lead Homeland Security | The New York Times

President-elect Donald J. Trump has settled on Gen. John F. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general whose son was killed in combat in Afghanistan, as his choice for secretary of Homeland Security, putting a seasoned commander with personal experience of the costs of war in charge of protecting the nation’s borders.

Blunt-spoken and popular with military personnel, General Kelly, 66, rose to run the United States Southern Command, which put him in charge of the military jail at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and exposed him to immigration, drug trafficking and other cross-border problems…